Racist Attacks against Roma in Czech Republic

29 July 2004

On April 20, 2004, three men physically attacked two Romani women, aged 22 and 30, in Baník restaurant in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, according to the on-line news source ROMEA of April 20, 2004. ROMEA quoted Mr Milan Klézl, a spokesperson for the Ostrava police as having stated that the attackers slapped and kicked the women, ripping the skirt of one of them, while shout-ing Nazi slogans. A Romani man helped the women, who reported the case to the police. ROMEA reported that the case was under investigation as rioting, battery, and as the criminal act of "sup-pression of civic rights and freedoms".

Earlier, on April 12, three men verbally assaulted the Romani family Voroš in the northern Czech city of Broumov, according to website of the Czech Police De-partment. According to the website, the men cursed the Romani ethnicity of the family and threatened to kill them while stand-ing at the gate of the family's home and striking it with baseball bats. After a short while, the men also threw stones at family mem-bers. The family called the police and the men attempted to run away, but a group of Roma from the area caught and held them until the police arrived. Two of the men were reportedly taken to the local police station, while the third man was released. A police investigation was reportedly underway as of April 13.

Earlier, on April 9, 2004, several men brutally attacked a 40-year-old Romani man on the street in the eastern Czech town of Zlín, according to the Zlín -based news-paper Zlínske noviny. The news-paper reported that the Romani man was left lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Police were called to the scene and were conducting an investigation into the attack as of the beginning of June 2004.

(ERRC, ROMEA, Zlínske noviny)